Bag Of Cash Doesn't Stop Jurors From Convicting In $40 Million Fraud Scheme

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — A jury convicted five Minnesota residents but acquitted two others on Friday for their roles in a scheme to steal more than $40 million that was supposed to feed children during the coronavirus pandemic. The case received widespread attention after someone tried to bribe a juror with a bag of $120,000 in cash.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Brasel dismissed that juror before deliberations began, as well as another juror who was told about the bribe attempt. An FBI investigation of the attempted bribe continues, with no arrests announced.

Defense attorneys argued that the defendants provided real meals to real people.

Jurors, prosecutors and defendants gathered in court to hear the verdicts read before Chief U.S. District Judge Patrick Schiltz, who was standing in for Brasel because she was traveling on Friday.

The seven defendants are the first of 70 to stand trial in what federal prosecutors have called one of the nation’s largest COVID-19-related frauds, exploiting rules that were kept lax so that the economy wouldn’t crash during the pandemic. More than $250 million in federal funds was taken in the Minnesota scheme overall, with only about $50 million of it recovered, authorities said.

An Associated Press analysis published last June documented how thieves across the country plundered billions in federal COVID-19 relief dollars. Fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion, while another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represented 10% of the $4.3 trillion the government disbursed by last fall. Nearly 3,200 defendants have been charged and about $1.4 billion in stolen pandemic aid has been seized, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

The Minnesota case drew attention